Grandmother Publicly Appeals for Family Members Persecuted for Practising Falun Gong

19 November 2009

At 7 a.m., on a cold winter morning on November 1st, 2009, in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, Falun Gong practitioner Chuang Jing's daughter, Ms. Ma Xiaoliang took her elderly, blind grandmother by the hand and slowly walked her to the Shuiyuanshan morning market. The 80-something year old grandmother was carrying a transparent, plastic envelope with an open letter inside. There was a big Chinese word "yuan" on the open letter, which means "injustice." There were also pictures of her son, Ma Xuejun, who appeared to be very sick and frail, due to the torture inflicted upon him because he practises Falun Gong. The granddaughter and the grandmother found an empty space in the crowd and stood.

People started gathering around to read the open letter and to ask them questions. The grandmother told them that her daughter-in-law was arrested by police from the Jiamusi Nangang Police Station and had been detained in a forced labour camp. She also said that her son, Ma Xuejun, former deputy division head of the Jiamusi Railroad Bureau, recovered from cancer after practising Falun Gong. He followed the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and gave the house offered to him by his work unit to another person. In the forced labour camp, her son was persecuted and tortured nearly to death. He is now paralysed.

The grandmother tearfully told the crowd of her misery. Someone sympathised with her and suggested that she go to the government. But as soon as the word "government" was brought up, she became very sad, angry, and felt that the situation was hopeless.

She said, "How could I not have gone to the government?. When I contacted government officials (police), they simply scorned me. They also opened all the windows in my home in hopes of freezing me out. The police either scorn me or they simply refuse to see me. I have nowhere to turn."

Officers from the Jiamusi Nangang Police Station, upon receiving an anonymous tip, arrived at the morning market. Officer Zhang Weifu and deputy chief Zhou Jiajia got out of a car and ran straight toward the crowd. They grabbed the plastic envelope from the grandmother and the open letters from Ma Xiaoliang. The grandmother was pushed to the ground amidst the pulling and tearing. Ms. Ma tried to reason with the police while protecting her grandmother, who began to convulse and had difficulty breathing. A kind-hearted bystander used acupressure above the grandmother's mouth to stop the convulsing and help her to regain her normal breathing.

The two police officers left as soon as they confiscated the items they wanted. They did not care that the grandmother was lying on the ground convulsing, nor were they concerned about the crowd's anger. Ms. Ma held her grandmother and took a tricycle to the Nangang Police Station to get their things back. The police slammed the door and would not let them in.

At 1 p.m., holding a plastic envelope tightly to her chest, the grandmother went to a large supermarket and stood at the entrance. People started gathering around when they saw the word "injustice." The elderly woman again, in tears, told the crowd her story One person was moved to tears by her story. Another kind-hearted person gave her a cup of hot soya milk, for which the grandmother was thankful. Two staff workers of the supermarket asked the elderly lady to leave, though the crowd asked she be allowed to stay.

On the coldest day in winter, the elderly lady limped to a large supermarket so that she could continue telling her story, but Zhang Jiachuan, an officer from the Jiamusi Xilin Police Station approached the her and threatened to call more police. The lady had no choice but to leave the supermarket with the help of some kind-hearted people.

The persecution account of Ma Xuejun can be found at the following links: